Guy Nang Békalé writes a blog of the first order, we have already said that. Its content is never trivial and the quality of the writing and treatment of topics never stop to force our admiration. In a recent post dealing with the case of ill-gotten gains, you can go read it by clicking here, Guy Nang Békalé presents a scientific and vertical analysis, that is to say from the bottom to the top and vice versa, of the various responsibilities that punctuate this issue. If the reasoning is sound, this blog still thinks that our esteemed fellow is too egalitarian in his distribution of responsibilities, since the realm of power is wider at the top of the pyramid than at its base; we believe that responsibility should also take into account this proportionality. This is why in this post we want to enter into dialogue with our esteemed compatriot for our exchange may enrich those Gabonese who are interested in this topic.

1. Define the ill-gotten gains

For our discussion, we will take the legal definition as it appears on the complaint filed NGOs in Europe, which says: "any real or personal property, or any funds that may have originated from wrongful private appropriation of public assets and which has the effect of depleting the assets of the state." Therefore, ill-gotten gains are the result of criminal activities allowing leaders an enrichment that cannot be justified by their income. This is clear!

2. What is the central argument of Guy Nang Békalé?

From the outset, he asks what are those who speak of ill-gotten gains by some Gabonese who received favors from the system of governance of Omar Bongo, trying to show. He postulates that ill-gotten gains is a problem that affects all aspects of life in the Gabonese nation, meaning: favoritism, regionalism, tribalism, loyalty to political power and those who have it, ethics, morality and social justice. He thinks that the ill-gotten gains are being too simplistically discussed around the Bongo family, when the reality is that according to him, it is a phenomenon that has been institutionalized in the entire state apparatus in Gabon. For Guy Nang Békalé, in Gabon those who were in contact with public money enriched themselves. He thinks that a better conduct of the investigation of ill-gotten gains should start by listing all administrative positions, public, semi-public or private, whose accession was made by appointment due to presidential decrees, etc. In fact Guy Nang Békalé’s argument boils down to something like this: in terms of ill-gotten gains, the entire administrative pyramid in Gabon is guilty.

3. Our response to Guy Nang Békalé

We begin by telling Guy Nang Békalé that we think he is wrong, because responsibilities are not as generously shared as he expresses it in his argument. As a teacher and having published several books related to politics in Gabon, Guy Nang Békalé knows that ill-gotten gains are not an accidental phenomenon in Gabon, but rather the creation of a man and his system of governance, that man is Omar Bongo Ondimba. We did not all know Omar Bongo as intimately as did our highly esteemed Guy Nang Békalé; which gives us the distance necessary to assess the occurrence of state corruption and its exponential expansion in Gabon. People can blame Léon Mba for a lot of things, but no one could ever accuse him to have ruled on the basis of the purchase of consciences and widespread corruption. In fact, what characterizes the first Gabonese politicians is often their disdain for stratospheric enrichment and distribution of state favors to the administrative pyramid. We believe that Guy Nang Békalé would agree with us on this point, which would put the arrival of Omar Bongo in power as the detonator of the large-scale corruption in the administration of Gabon. On this point, to talk of the Bongos as catalyzing the method of ill-gotten gains in Gabon, is not to bend history, or be too hard on them. There are still Gabonese people willing to tell the truth, all the truth. Gregory Ngbwa Mintsa, a Gabonese citizen who joined the civil complaint of ill-gotten gains, was very explicit in his acceptance speech of the International Award for Integrity, about the need to continue to prosecute and put out of business those and their accomplices, who impoverish, starve and kill their people by stripping them of their resources. Yet Gregory Ngbwa Mintsa is not just anybody. He is the son of the first Gabonese Ambassador to France, André Mintsa, who became eventually a long time Minister. He is a highly educated person having a Ph.D., who has known since a young age the prestige of living on the main avenues in France and the most beautiful areas in Gabon, including Battery 4. However, neither the name of his father, nor his own, nor that of any member of his family, has ever been found smeared by ill-gotten gains, giving him more credit and credibility because as he says on his blog, large sums of money and lucrative positions have been proposed to him, which he rejected one after the other. This is to say that the assertion that everyone is guilty of having participated in the fair of ill-gotten gains is false, because even in Gabon, one can find people who have had the means to loot the state, but who chose not to. It is a matter of education. This blog does not think that the vulgarly expensive trait of the Bongo family is the best shared attribute in Gabon.

While we admire the verve and clarity with which Guy Nang Békalé defends his thesis of universality of Gabonese ill-gotten gains, we cannot accept this argument because in our humble opinion, it is Omar Bongo and his governance who are not only solely responsible for creating the conditions that triggered the introduction of virulent corruption in Gabon, but also and especially the fact remains undeniable that the Bongo family has been and still is the main beneficiary of this system of predation of state resources. So, how can we, in the light of these facts suggest that there is equality of responsibilities between the system architect and whoever enjoying arbitrary appointment would join the revelers? This blog thinks that in the pyramid state of Gabon, there are various levels of responsibility, but the highest level of responsibility lies at the top of the pyramid and the guiltiest are found at its apex. Those engaged in the pursuit of the ill-gotten gains are doing the right thing. Primary responsibilities are at the top of the state.

We therefore remand the ball to Guy Nang Békalé, who we hope will continue to enlighten us with other clarifications.

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